


Names

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [121]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Tumblr Prompt, kastle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 19:32:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18482908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: He calls her Maria, once





	Names

**Author's Note:**

> It came over me while preparing a veggie burger. Go figure. Hope it pleases

He calls her Maria, once. 

It’s an accident, of course it is. He’s distracted, they’re packing for their very first weekend away together, he’s checking if they have everything, if he’s not forgetting anything, and he asks if she knows where the spare keys to his car are. 

She doesn’t hear him, going over her own list, her suitcase opened on the bed. 

He calls her by name, but he’s not even looking her way. It just slips. 

Maria. 

There’s a silence, and even the dog looks at him like he’s asking, “who?”

Frank freezes on the spot, a curse stuck on his throat, and Karen looks at him, a side smile on her face. 

“Shit”, he says, not knowing what to feel or what to do or how to act. “Sorry. I didn’t-”

“Frank.”

“It just slipped, I’m-”

“Hey, hey. Frank.”

He looks at her, finally, and she’s smiling, shaking her head at him softly. 

“It’s ok. Don’t worry.”

“No, it’s not, it’s…” 

He takes his hands to his face, and he admits. He’s tired. Madani’s been riding his ass, lately, they have to get on the road before dawn tomorrow, it’s the first time they do anything like this, he’s nervous, stressed, he’s…

He was used to do this with his wife. They’ve been on little road trips like this one a million times, sometimes just the two of them, sometimes with the kids, sometimes more people. They had a rhythm, they had a system, they knew how to do this. 

Muscle memory, he figures. He got to that headspace, maybe. And her name just slipped off his tongue, as if she was standing right there behind him, ready to ask if he had packed shampoo. 

“Frank”, Karen says again, taking a step to him, closing her own hands around his wrists to lower them from his face. “It’s fine, stop.”

Frank looks at her, and she smiles at him again. 

“Please don’t worry about it. Ok? It was bound to happen.”

She’s right, of course. It was. Even if he doesn’t even use her own name that much anymore. She’s Karen sometimes, sure, but, more often than not, she’s some sort of pet name. 

‘Sweetheart’, mostly. ‘Babe’, when it’s just the two of them. ‘Baby’, but rarely. ‘Ma’am’ if he’s being cute. There’s a variety of them, variations of her own name, but the full ‘Karen’ is the one he uses less. 

“Look”, she says, sweetly, when looks at her all guilty. “You loved this woman. With your whole heart. Right? And she was taken from you, very suddenly. If you call me by her name, it means, I think, that you kinda like me, too?”

He chuckles, lifting a hand to caress her hair.

“Yeah? And that you’re comfortable enough around me to not be so on guard. Right? It means, I think, that maybe I’m digging my own space inside that heart of yours.”

He kisses her, soft and gentle. 

“You have already. You know this.”

“I do know it. So don’t worry about it. Ok? Honestly, I’m surprised it took you this long.”

They talk about his late wife that night. She knows the basics, knows their history, has an idea of how his family came to be and how it worked. But Frank never really actually talked about Maria with her, about her personality and what defined her. 

She asks, when they’re getting ready to settle for the night, if she reminds him of her in any way, and he nods, resting his head on his pillow. 

“Yeah, actually.”

And then he tells her about how she was stubborn, like Karen. Strong willed and full of opinions, a very defined sense of what was right and wrong, an easy sense of humor, a contagious laugh, and how she would call him on his bullshit every time. 

“So you got a type, huh?” she teases, pinching his arm, and he smiles, pulling her to settle against him. 

“I guess.”

They drive away from her apartment the next morning, before the sun is up. Karen immediately opens a bag of chips, and he thinks of the clear contrast of the sour cream smell from the carrots, celery and apple slices Maria used to pack them - especially after the kids were born. 

“Johnathan”, she says right before they leave the city. 

“What’s that?”

“Boyfriend I had when I was 17. Hot head, impulsive, very handsome in a bad boy sorta way. I figured if you’re gonna call me by a different name, I should have one for you, too.”

He pokes her waist and she wiggles away, giggling, ticklish thing she is. 

“Very funny.”

He puts his hand back on the wheel and she moves to place a big kiss on his cheek, just like-

He doesn’t call her by any other name again. At least not to her. In his head, the two women that managed to steal his heart right out of his chest sometimes get mixed up. 

It’s a different kind of love. It’s the same kind of love. It’s love, and Frank Castle counts his blessings that he was lucky - smart, blessed, destined - enough to find it, twice. 

And before they go back to the city, he starts thinking if Karen wouldn’t like to go by another name. Her own name, but, maybe… With his to follow it. 

She smiles and kisses him and tells him she loves him, and he decides he’s gonna ask. 


End file.
